Students protesting in alleged irregularities in the competitive exams in Jharkhand called off their 26-day agitation on Wednesday and gave a two-month ultimatum to the state government to resolve issues. They also demanded the government to withdraw FIRs against the agitators and reinstate whistleblower of job exam anomalies, Santosh Mastana, to Finance Department.
Meanwhile, tension prevailed at the Jharkhand Secretariat after a large number of successful candidates rendered jobless following the government’s declaration, forcibly entered the campus in defiance of prohibitory order, an official said.Jharkhand government now faces Nearly 2,000 candidates appointed to various Jharkhand departments after clearing the JSSC CGL examination held a march in Ranchi on Tuesday, protesting the decision to cancel the recruitment test. The march from the state secretariat to Birsa Chowk was held a day after Chief Minister Hemant Soren announced the cancellation of the competitive exams and all the other recruitment tests conducted by the Lucknow-based agency since 2014, along with the results published through it.Protesting employees maintained that they did not oppose to an investigation but wanted the government to distinguish between candidates allegedly involved in malpractice and those who secured appointments through legitimate selection processes.Earlier on Tuesday, the JMM-led coalition issued a list of 44 recruitment examinations cancelled over alleged irregularities. The list was issued through eight notifications which included examinations conducted by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission and the outsourced agency, TSR Data Processing Private Limited, since 2014. Besides, examinations for the recruitment of drug inspectors, assistant professors, deputy collectors, dental doctors, assistant engineers, civil judges, additional public prosecutors and forest range officers were also cancelled. Additionally, exams held for government polytechnics, senior scientific officers, assistant conservators of forest and several administrative and technical posts were cancelled. The government Asa, request the High Court on constituting a fast-track court to hear cases related to the irregularities in the examinations. Besides, it has planned to set up an internal vigilance cell in both the commissions. A committee headed by senior IAS officer Amitabh Kaushan, formed to recommend reforms in JPSS, SC and JSSC, will submit its report to the government within two months.